Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    So Vice President Biden announced Aug. 1 that the tea party members are terrorists! It was on Late Show With David Letterman, so he must have said it. I remember he bashed his running mate during the 2008 presidential campaign (is Obama qualified?): "I think he can be ready but right now, I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training." I emailed the Obama website and advised "Fire him!" Apparently Obama did not have the authority to do so. Too bad.

Dear Editor,
    In Michael King's recent editorial "Point Austin: Seeing Double" [News, July 29], he described people against Water Treatment Plant No. 4 as being insensitive to the need for local employment. Trying to draw parallels between Austin and the national political landscape, he compared WTP4 opponents to the tea party, who oppose stimulus spending to create jobs and repair the national economy.
    In my case, he would be wrong. I have voted as a Democrat for 34 years. I agree with The New York Times commentator Paul Krugman (whom King referenced in his editorial) that Barack Obama spent way too little on stimulus money when he had the chance. Obama may be defeated in the next election because of it. However, just because I am for the stimulus theory in concept does not mean I want ratepayer and tax money wasted.
    Consider the pet project of former (Republican) Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, "the bridge to nowhere," a federally funded bridge connecting a remote, sparsely populated area of the state for no discernible public good. It will create some jobs, but what service did it render the public? Tax and rate money are valuable. At this point, new water treatment capacity is not justified.
    The majority of WTP4 opponents I work with on this issue are not against the plant for reasons such as opposing stimulus money. There may be tea party members against this plant, but I have not knowingly met them.
    Locally, we can spend "stimulus" money on things that would actually be a good investment for tax and ratepayers. These include creating a larger reclaimed water system, repairing leaking pipes, and retrofitting commercial buildings to save water. The list also includes transportation improvements (rail, road repair, bike lanes, sidewalks), retrofitting buildings to be more energy efficient, and a host of other projects that better serve the public.
    Also consider Austin's proposed water rate increase of 61% over the next 5 years, part of which will pay for this plant. This includes the newly proposed "sustainability fee," a regressive fixed charge that will be levied whether or not ratepayers use a gallon of water. If the increase happens, there will be less discretionary income that ratepayers can spend, hampering local economic recovery.
    If Michael King wants to defend the treatment plant, it will not help his credibility to keep making incredulous statements about his opponents' philosophy.

Dear Editor,
    Evading arrest should have stronger repercussions. What would it take to get a law written and passed that basically states anyone who attempts to or succeeds in evading arrest is required to cover all costs related to that evasion and subsequent search and/or chase, before they are released from parole or probation? Even if it is just 15 minutes of a dozen officers on foot, equipment, and support staff's time. Those costs add up, and the taxpayers foot the bill.
    Not to mention the danger and potential cost to innocent bystanders.

Dear Editor,
    Michael King’s latest screed makes clear he prefers Rush Limbaugh-style name-calling to informing his readers. King seeks to inoculate his fact-free know-nothingism by accusing opponents of the billion dollar (counting interest payments) water plant with charges of “moral absolutism,” “demagogic environmentalism,” and not caring about the plant workers who would lose their jobs if the boondoggle plant was postponed for a decade or more until we actually need more treatment capacity.
    Building the plant was never about funding jobs – until every other reason for the plant was shot down as being wholly without merit. At this point, it’s not about jobs but about lining the pockets of contractors and engineering firms, with most of the high-paying jobs located out of state.
    If it’s jobs we care about, we can employ more local workers at a fraction of the cost per job by addressing our real water problems: replacing hundreds of miles of old, failing pipes that leak billions of gallons of water into the ground all around our city; extending our reclaimed water system that’s barely been started; and investing in water efficiencies that will pay dividends immediately to current ratepayers, both residential and commercial.
    These investments will help us build a water efficient economy, protecting hundreds of thousands of jobs from severe droughts that will only grow worse with a hotter, drier climate. By contrast, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars adding water treatment capacity when we aren’t using the capacity we already have won’t give us a single drop of additional water.
    While wrapping himself in the flag of workers, King doesn’t bother to notice that the many thousands of Austin water customers who use the least amount of water and can least afford water rate hikes now face a single year water-rate increase of 65%. If King or any of his colleagues at the Chronicle care one whit about workers or keeping Austin affordable for working families, please report the facts.

   [Michael King responds: I did not and would not presume to compete with Bill Bunch in the art of name-calling, as he so deftly demonstrates here. As for "facts": As long as one understands the term as Bunch characteristically uses it – "an opinion that coincides with that of Bill Bunch" – I suppose the column in question is indeed "fact-free." What he certainly does not acknowledge in this case are facts on the ground, e.g.: the city's decommissioning of the Green WTP, the current reliance on two aging treatment plants, the many official decisions to go forward, the city's contractual commitment of hundreds of millions of dollars, and major construction both completed and under way. Similarly, his attribution of any and all potential increases in water rates to WTP4 is arithmetic "factual" only in his own imagination.]

Dear Editor,
    Re: “The 'Unintended Consequences' of No-Kill's Success” [News, July 29]: It isn’t surprising that since implementing “no-kill” policies, the Town Lake Animal Center is reportedly overcrowded and struggling to find space to house all the homeless animals who pour through its doors. It’s true that “kitten season” results in more homeless kittens, but the overcrowding that the TLAC is experiencing is only the beginning of what is to come, as long as it maintains these dangerous and misguided policies.
    Because there are so many more homeless animals than good homes waiting for them, the only way most shelters can avoid euthanasia is by caging animals for months on end, sometimes warehousing them in stacked crates – which is cruelty, plain and simple – or by turning away animals when there is no more room. Many of these rejected animals die terrible deaths at the hands of people who are desperate to get rid of them, or they are tossed out to die on the streets from starvation or being hit by cars. The lucky ones end up in shelters that accept every animal, even when the best they can offer some is a painless and dignified death in the arms of caring workers.
    Having a “sale” on homeless animals isn’t a solution to this crisis, especially in today’s troubled economy. Doing so encourages impulse adoptions by people who aren’t financially, emotionally, or physically prepared to care for an animal for the next 15-plus years. Animals may end up paying the price when they are neglected, deprived of veterinary care, or abandoned.
    No-kill policies aren't the solution to the animal homelessness crisis. Only by preventing more animals from being born through spaying and neutering will we reach the day when every animal has a loving home.

Dear Editor,
    In the spring of 2001 my wife and I visited friends in Austin. Having some free time that rainy day, we took the walking tour of the state Capitol. The well-educated and articulate young woman serving as guide enriched us all with her informative presentation. During one of the walks between the stopping points, I engaged her in conversation about the influence of governors on state affairs. She staggered me by saying that in Texas the constitutional power of the governor is really quite limited, that far more power is in the hands of the lieutenant governor and two or three other officials, that aside from the veto pen, the governor is essentially a figurehead.
    When we returned to our home in Pennsylvania, I asked the chair of political science at Westminster College (Pennsylvania) if this information was correct. He quickly replied, "Oh yes, there are only two or three other states who limit the governor's power as much as Texas."
    So for eight years we endured a "figurehead-in-chief" in the White House who rode into office on the claim of having been the chief executive of the great state of Texas. Now I understand why, in answer to a reporter's recent question, "What was your favorite job?" George W. Bush answered, "Being governor of Texas."
    My concern now is that another Texas governor is nudging toward running for president. In this early stage of next year's election, I entreat you to look into this office he holds, and alert the electorate that it is in no way a legitimate qualification to be the nation's chief executive.

Dear Editor,
    There’s a great way for the city of Austin to address the controversy over charging for parking on the street Downtown during evening hours.
    Rather than simply putting the income generated into the city treasury, which for many is analogous to dumping it down a black hole, all funds raised should be dedicated to expanding public transit options to reach the central city. Capital Metro could be reimbursed for running evening trains on weekends. Late bus service to Downtown could also be improved.
    This would be analogous to the city of London, which charges a steep fee (roughly $16) to drive a car downtown. The fee is used to improve public transit. The result – fewer cars, buses moving faster, and more space for bikes and pedestrians.

Dear Editor,
    Re: Folkville Ice Cream Reunion: I was so happy to hear about the 30th anniversary musicians reunion at the Folkville Ice Cream Parlor. Over the years I have told my musician pals all over America about the time I played there in 1981 … and how Mr. Brewer was so good to me!
    After my marriage-to-be to my beloved Ms. Elizabeth Albrecht was destroyed by the right-wing, racist, vicious police in Alvin, Texas … just because I was an opponent of the war on drugs and for the legalization of marijuana and after the Republicans ruined my marriage and my life in Brazoria County, I packed up my guitar, and my songs, and hitchhiked to Austin.
    While in Austin I lived on a park bench in Waterloo Park and played my folk songs over at Folkville … which to me was the most hip place in all of Texas. Mr. Brewer even gave me three dollars once to buy some food with since I was a homeless musician.

Dear Editor,
    As a pedestrian, once I get a walk signal, I frequently have to wait a few seconds for one or more cars to run the red light before I can safely cross the intersection. I support the red-light cameras because these drivers are putting lives in danger by not stopping when they are supposed to. The only changes I would make to the program are to cover more intersections and to give the tickets the same force of law as a ticket issued by a police officer. People who do not pay should receive arrest warrants, not collection notices.

Dear Editor,
    Gov. Perry recently voiced support of New York's right to support gay marriage. Not that he agrees with or supports gay marriage but supposedly because he supports states' rights and the 10th Amendment. Now, he's saying he supports a federal constitutional amendment to define marriage between a man and a woman. So, he supports the state's right to do something as long as the federal government can override it. Whether you support gay marriage or not, the issue is the blatant hypocrisy. Be careful who you vote for. Apparently, you'll never know what you are getting.

Dear Chronicle,
    I have to say the Dale Watson pic mimicking Johnny Cash lost its punch with me [“Off the Record,” Music, July 29]. Why?
    He posed using the bent-finger, designer, late-Seventies version of flipping the bird (common when I was in high school), whereas Johnny Cash did the full, hard-grip fist version of flipping the finger.
    Dale walks the line … but the pic didn't. I want to see the aggro Fifties-era bird shootin'.